Girl Play

Here's what I learned from watching Girl Play, a 2004 extremely low-budget film: lesbians can be just as boring as heterosexuals. The film, based on a play written by its two stars, is basically two monologues amplified by a few narrative scenes, and is extremely short, but I started watching the countdown on the DVD player at about the ten-minute mark.

The stars/writers are Robin Greenspan and Lacie Harmon, who met as stand-up comedians in L.A. and were cast together in a play as lovers. They ended up falling for each other. That's not exactly a thrill-a-minute plot, so we get some other stuff, such as how Greenspan came out to her mother (in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant) and that Harmon has commitment problems. None of this is particularly interesting, and I'll bet if you pulled any two random people off the street their lives would be more fascinating.

But it brings me no pleasure knocking this film because it's so apparent that these two women believe in their project. Directed by Lee Friedlander, it is a product of the lesbian artistic community, and there certainly are not many films focused on lesbians (when Hollywood approaches the topic, such as in The Kids Are Alright, one of them ends up falling for a man, reinforcing the "lesbian as a phase" mindset).

There are two main problems with the film, besides the fact that these women's stories are not that original. First, the performers are not that good. They do a lot of indicating, and there talent level is visible in any showcase you're likely to see. Second, the structure of the film is really awful. Instead of taking the monologues and turning it into a narrative drama, Friedlander simply fills them on stage, splicing in acted-out scenes. I imagine this might be because of cost, but what we get is the women describing scenes as we are watching them. Friedlander has apparently forgotten the "show, don't tell" rule in narrative.

There are a few amusing casting choices. Mink Stole, she of several John Waters movies, is Greenspan's mother (wildly overacting as the Jewish mother) and Dom DeLuise is the director of the play. Also, I couldn't help but be fixated on how much Harmon looks like Ed Burns. She could be his twin sister.